LAWS OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE 401 



They show that states of surplus and deficit affect not only moral 

 traits but also create degeneration and retardation. Psychology, how- 

 ever, has added a clearly defined cause of non-development which had 

 escajied notice. The growth of an organ depends partly on the direc- 

 tion given to growth by the unit characters of the germ-cell and partly 

 to the use to which it is put. Even if the forces of the germ-cell are 

 normal no organ will fully develop without constant exercise. Kegres- 

 sion in an organ will take place if the stimuli to exercise are absent. 

 These stimuli lie not in the organ, but in the brain cells. Mental ac- 

 tivity may fail from three causes. Psychic traits may be inactive 

 through degeneration : they may not develop because of retardation : or 

 the environment may lack the elements that arouse their activity. In 

 each of these cases the trouble lies in objective facts mainly if not 

 solely of an economic nature. Begressions do not differ in their origin 

 from degenerations and retardations. They all arise from defects in 

 the environment and thus do not indicate changes in the unit-char- 

 acters of the germ-cell. 



A study of man should begin with his social nature and with the 

 degenerate forces at work within him. These two problems run into 

 each other because it is man's social nature that has stopped elimina- 

 tion. Society uses its nurture to keep the weak alive and hence im- 

 proved conditions means not progress but degeneration. A second dif- 

 ference between men and animals arises out of the social classes which 

 differences in income create. The poor are in this way subject to ex- 

 ploitation and held in the grip of want. Dr. Woods says men have 

 choices and can escape their environment. This is in a degree true 

 of the higher income levels but not of the poor. Their fate is as definite 

 and as objective as that of any lower animal. Along with poverty goes 

 physical retardation, and the two combined are responsible for the 

 mass of traits associated with the poor. A full maturity depends on 

 the stimuli that evoke activity and hence promote growth. These 

 stimuli are psychic traits made active in men by contact with the eco- 

 nomic environment. This means that wealth is needed to place around 

 each family the proper objects to excite interest: without them the 

 psychic powers are dormant and the physical are regressive. 



The environment of a man is determined not by his geographical 

 habitat, but by his income. The various income levels of society create 

 as marked differences in men as differences in latitude do in animals. 

 The influence of environment on man is therefore not less but dif- 

 ferent from the same influence on animals. All virtues and defects in 

 men are environmental. The virtues are social; the defects are de- 

 generations, retardations and regressions. Most observable traits come 

 under these heads. They change with the environment and not with 

 the germ cell. Only those changes that are really progressive can be 



